Dear listener,

I would like to share with you some of my experiences, opinions, and other interesting pieces of information about this music. I want these anecdotes to help open up a window into our lives so that you can see something of our process, our system, our connection. We shared such a wonderful experience composing, rehearsing, creating, and recording this music with each other. I hope it helps to bring joy and life to you, as it did for us.
—Anthony

At the time of writing Washing Windows, I was experimenting with the rhythm of melody without meter and wanted this melody to feel flexible. I like how we individually navigate the line, how we each play our own interpretation while coming together strongly to hit the cadences. This is a great example of why I love improvising with this group. Starting around 1:05, we manage to pick a single basic theme (I play just one note!) and develop it into a suspenseful and powerful improvisation.

I remember the first time Andrew brought Eight Ball to us. A simple lead sheet, one page. After we played it, I looked at my bandmates with a big smile knowing that the tune was an instant classic. It has that certain energy that gives us total freedom, providing a strong thematic jumping-off point for improvisation that always worked so well for us.

:0. What was I thinking with that name?!? Oh well, what’s done is done. A simple, folky melody played beautifully. Gotta love it. When we were rehearsing this piece, Joe said that he wanted to bring a bunch of extra percussion instruments for the actual recording. Trusting Joe, I accepted and was absolutely delighted. I really love what he did and I couldn’t have imagined it any better. I love the way he ebbs and flows in all of the right places and how he manages to incorporate all of his unique instruments into a unified sonic experience.

“It’s a blue fork, and also a cheese fork, so it’s a Blue Cheese Fork. Blue cheese!” A curious and honest remark made by Joe’s young daughter. We all had a good laugh as Joe recounted the story behind the title. This is a groovy tune, a good example of minimalism in composition. There are just a few musical phrases, but they are played differently each time. I remember that Joe wrote something completely impossible for any saxophonist to play in the second-to-last bar (I think there were 16th note triplets from the highest note to lowest). I asked what he wanted me to do and he said, with a smirk, to “try my best.” So, what you hear in this recording is my “best” attempt at playing the impossible.

Joe wrote Dancing Through as a kind of tongue twister, and it became an Achilles’ Heel of sorts for us. After playing it for the first time, I remember looking around at each other awkwardly and putting it in the back of our books. We began to explore different ways to play it, though, changing form, instrumentation, tempo, and anything else we could think of. After months of incorporating small adjustments, it finally began to make sense to us and really started to groove.

Andrew’s CT—Cowboy Tune—lives up to its name. Playing and listening to it makes me think of the desert sunset. I especially love the last phrase at 2:30. Most of the song is in a different key than the last phrase, which gives it extra power. We really hit it off during the improvisation here with some nice energy. At around 4:25, we reach the melody with a very smooth and seamless transition.

Hello Hong Kong was inspired by Anthony Braxton’s Composition 23C. I divided the piece up into short musical phrases. After we play the first phrase, we return to the beginning and play it again before adding the second phrase. Then, we return to the beginning and play the first, second, and third phrases. This process continues until the entire melody has been unveiled. I love the contrast that Andrew achieves with the bow starting at 2:15 for the second pass of the melody. It has an evil quality that dramatically alters the energy of the piece.